High-performance chains and the high-performance chain link plates required for these chains are almost exclusively used for internal combustion engines and are subjected to challenges that can be called extreme as compared to other chain applications. Such automobile chains are used, for instance, for control assemblies for coupling the at least one camshaft to the crankshaft, or, for instance, for dynamic balancers in gasoline engines. For instance, maximum chain speeds of 12 m/sec occur in a control assembly of a diesel engine at 5000 rpm, or of up to 40 m/sec in a dynamic balancer of a gasoline engine at 7500 rpm. That is, the chains run extremely fast. Furthermore, automobile chains run in an engine oil environment that puts additional stress on the chain material. Also, automobile chains are subjected to extreme dynamics. There may be load changes from 2000 N to 200 N and vice versa within the range of a few milliseconds with long-life requirements of 200,000 to 300,000 km. In connection with high-performance chain link plates it is important that they have so-called functional surfaces with a certain low surface roughness that can be obtained only by precision blanking or re-cutting, while other regions of the high-performance chain link plates, in particular the head areas of the high-performance chain link plates pointing to each other, need to have a low surface roughness. In automobile drives the chains frequently run along guide rails and/or tensioner blades. To this end, the chains have a link plate back with a corresponding surface quality so as to achieve adequate service lives both for the chain and the rails. Moreover, not only untoothed sleeve-type chains and bush roller chains but also toothed chains are used in automobile drives. The contour of the tooth being a functional surface is likewise subjected to a re-cutting process or precision punching. Depending on the construction type and the design of the toothed chain the outer and inner flanks, or at least the outer or the inner flanks are engaged with the chain wheels. To this end, the tooth contours have to be either precision-blanked or re-cut in order to obtain the desired surface quality. Such a re-cut tooth link plate is described, for instance, in DE 202007002046. Typically, also the openings in the links (receiving the pins and/or sleeves) are re-cut and can then also be regarded as functional surfaces or functional areas.
The production of such high-performance chain link plates is commonly realized with a sheet metal band which is supplied to the punching machine as strip stock. The high-performance chain link plates are punched out of the sheet metal band in several punching steps, wherein usually the longitudinal axes of the chain link plates are oriented in parallel to the longitudinal edge of the sheet metal band, and, as a rule, several punching tracks are provided. A common format are, for instance, 8 punching tracks side by side. A straight chain link plate for a chain having a chain pitch of 8 mm, with a link plate length of 15.55 mm, requires a feed length V of 17 mm. The distance between two link plates arranged in succession in such an embodiment is 1.45 mm and the distance of two punching tracks is about 2.25 mm. These distances are necessary to allow the formation of sufficiently stable punches which move between the link plate blanks and punch out the waste material. As a certain edge distance to the edge of the sheet metal band is necessary, too, a considerable amount of punching waste is produced in the mass production of such high-performance chain link plates.